One Piece (Anime)

After the manga had started very successfully, it was basically only a matter of time until a Anime from the manga series. The Japanese production studio Toei animation has been producing both the anime and 16 feature films and various TV specials to date since 1999.

Original video animation

A OVA (Original Video Animation) is an anime produced exclusively for the video market. In the case of One Piece, such an OVA appeared in 1998, produced by the production studio Production I.G. Under the name “One Piece: Finish Him! The Pirate Ganzack” it was released together with two other OVAs of other series (Hunter × Hunter and Seikimatsu Leader Takeshi) within the framework of the 30th anniversary of the Jump Super Anime Tour published. Since a different production company was responsible for the OVA, other seiyuu were also hired than for the later TV anime. Readers of Weekly Shōnen Jump had the opportunity to purchase a VHS copy for ¥500.

For the 40th anniversary of the Jump Super Anime Tour, the second One Piece OVA, Romance Dawn Remake, was released.

Television series

Japan

Production

The rights of the One Piece anime are held by the mangaka Eiichiro Oda, the publishing company Shūeisha the production studio Toei Animation, the broadcasting station Fuji TV, sponsors, and the Japanese advertising agency Asatsu-DK. All rights holders have some say in the production and broadcasting around the anime.

The production of an anime episode of One Piece involves many people. For example, the production studio Toei Animation employs directors, animators, scriptwriters, producers, composers and voice actors (Seiyū). To complete a single episode for TV broadcast, it takes several months. To avoid getting into a bottleneck, alternating teams work on different episodes in parallel. The production costs per episode amount to about 10 million yen, which corresponds to about 75,000 – 80,000 euros.

Charisma

On October 20, 1999, the television series produced by Toei Animation started on the Japanese channel Fuji TV. Japanese TV stations provide a weekly broadcast – occasionally the broadcast is suspended in favor of special events. The anime’s first broadcast slot was Wednesdays from 19:00 – 19:30. Starting with episode 064 (April 15, 2001), a new episode aired every Sunday at 19:00. With the start of flashbacks, the broadcast slot was moved to Sundays 09:30 starting with episode 279 (October 01, 2006), where the anime still airs weekly with few exceptions.

As with Weekly Shōnen Jump on holidays, there are set breaks when the anime stops airing, such as at the turn of the year or in favor of the annual Nagoya Women’s Marathons in March, which is broadcast by Fuji TV. Rarely does the anime take an unscheduled break due to natural disasters, as in March 2011 as a result of the Tōhoku earthquake and the associated Fukushima nuclear disaster or other events such as North Korea’s missile test in February 2016. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020, production had to pause for nine weeks. This is the longest forced break the anime has ever had to experience.

At the beginning, the anime was broadcast in the normal format 4:3. Since episode 207, however, was switched to HDTV and thus to the format 16:9. From 07 April 2012 to 30 March 2013, the series began to repeat every Saturday at 9:55 under the additional name “Special Edition”. The Special Edition was a re-release of the anime starting from episode 001. In this case, re-release does not mean a newly animated anime series. The aspect ratio of the old 4:3 episodes was merely upscaled to 16:9 and the edges were cropped. However, only the first 53 episodes were aired, not the first 206. The filler episodes 045-046 and 050-051 were omitted.

Eyecatcher / Commercial Break Animation

Eyecatchers are the commercial breakers that introduce and end the commercial break in Japanese anime. They are usually short scenes or illustrations. In the One Piece anime, this happens about halfway through the episode. One eyecatcher introduces the commercial, while another fades back into the episode. So far, four different versions of Eyecatchers have appeared since the series began. All members of the Straw Hat Pirates have their own Eyecatcher in each version.

In the first set of Eyecatchers, the individual straw hats are shown on wanted posters. Besides the Straw Hat Pirates, there is also a wanted poster with Vivi and Karoo. However, this Eyecatcher was only used during their journey together to the end of the Arabasta Arc. In the second set, the individual members as well as personal items are observed through a telescope in a short scene. From the time jump on, personal items of the members are seen lying on a table, which are then taken by the respective member as they pass by. From episode 535, an eyecatcher with the One Piece logo appears for the first time, which from then on in each episode leads from the advertising back to the episode. After the end of the Dress Rosa arc, the Straw Hats can be seen again on their now new wanted posters distributed by the Newspaper Seagulls. There is also an eye-catcher of Bartolomeo and Trafalgar Law, each with the corresponding pirate ships in the background, in reference to the first set.

With the start of the Wa No Kuni arc, there are two new eye-catchers with Luffy and Zoro. The music is reinterpreted with Japanese sounds while the two Straw Hats perform an attack and ultimately each fades into a group shot of the Straw Hat Pirates. During Oden’s flashback, new eye-catchers followed, showing parallels between Luffy and Oden’s lives. First, Luffy, Nami and Zoro are shown in a close-up.

Then it fades to a still shot showing an experience of Luffy. As a counterpart, a close-up and dissolve follows with Roger, Shanks and Oden. The camerawork, presentation and effects in the dissolve are the same as in the Straw Hats. The melody used for the Roger pirate gang is Luffy’s Japanese-style theme, while Luffy’s original theme is used for the Straw Hats. The following freeze frame shows an event of Oden, which is similar to the one shown before of Luffy (for example, Luffy and Zoro eating something at Tsuru’s store, just like Oden and Kinemon did in the past).

After the end of the flashback, the previous Wano Country Eyecatchers featuring the Straw Hat Pirates are briefly shown again before an entirely new set is introduced once more. The first Eyecatcher always introduces the commercial: The Straw Hat Pirates (with the exception of Zoro and Sanji) run through the frame in front of a Japanese room divider, with only their upper bodies showing. Only Luffy is seen, who then turns around before a pan to the gang’s group shot.

The second eye-catcher again fades from the commercial to the sequel: Sanji is seen flirting with two women from Wano Country in front of the room divider before Zoro cuts it from the other side of the room divider. Afterwards, the red sword scabbards are shown. After the special episodes for One Piece Film Red, the eye-catchers were changed again. The fourth Wano Country set begins with Luffy grabbing Momonosuke with his extended arm and then landing on his head.

A Hanafuda card then appears, showing Luffy riding a wild boar. In the second eye-catcher, the red sword scabbards face each other on the left and right, and the camera moves between them to Momonosuke, who is standing at the end of the sword scabbards. The image zooms into Momonosuke’s eye and it fades to a group shot of the Straw Hat Pirates standing with their backs to the camera, watching the sunrise. A Hanafuda card appears again, this time showing Zoro drinking a large bowl of sake.

Anime Guide

Streaming

On February 22, 2020, the on-demand service Crunchyroll announced that the anime series will also be in their portfolio in the future. In addition to the simulcast, all previous episodes should also be made available, starting with episode 001.

TV Specials

As part of the TV series, specials are also produced for special occasions or even holidays – similar to the fillers, they are basically self-contained and show the Straw Hat Pirates in sometimes unusual surroundings. While the first specials (1-3) were each two episodes in length, the fourth special contained two episodes that aired together. Since then, the TV specials have been only the length of normal episodes. Since August 2012, a TV Special has also been shown annually outside of the anime’s normal broadcast schedule. Most of these are remakes of past arcs, but some also include new story arcs.

Movies

When it was clear that the series was a resounding success, decided to Toei animation to release a feature film in theaters for the year 2000. Until 2008, a new feature film was produced every spring. In 2009, this tradition was broken. The film “Strong World” was not released until winter, and Eiichiro Oda also participated extensively in the film, contributing more than just character designs as in previous films. In 2011, only one Jump Heroes movie was released together with Toriko was released in theaters, but it is not counted in the official count of films. From then on, a new feature film followed every three years, in which Eiichiro Oda was involved in one way or another in the production.